President Donald Trump spends his Sundays keeping tabs on the location of NFL players' knees during the National Anthem.

It is disrespectful, he has told us, not to stand for the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner.

So says the president who this week called the pregnant widow of a fallen soldier and apparently couldn't remember the soldier's name.

Trump has once again stepped into a steaming pile of pooh, this time by reportedly telling the widow of a fallen Green Beret that her husband knew “what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurts.”

Lawmaker's account of Trump flub corroborated

Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. and a frequent critic of Trump, says she was there when Trump, who was on speakerphone, talked with Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson. This, as they were headed to Miami International Airport for the arrival of Sgt. Johnson’s body.

Sgt. Johnson’s aunt, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, who also was in the car, confirmed Wilson’s description of the call to the Washington Post.

Trump, meanwhile, says the story is “totally fabricated” and that he can prove it.

Of course, he hasn’t.

Doesn't make sense he intended to insult family

Still, I’m going to give the president the benefit of the doubt here and assume that he didn’t intend to call the grieving, pregnant widow of a hero and insult her.

I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest that perhaps what came out as an insult was intended, in Trump’s own inartful way, as admiration. Something along of lines of “He knew what he was signing up for – the possibility of giving his life in service to his country – and yet he did it anyway.”

Because it just doesn’t make sense that Trump would intentionally set out to hurt this family.

But really, the forgetting of name, the denials?

But here’s the part of the story I can’t get over. During the Tuesday phone call, the president gave the family the impression that he didn’t even know the fallen soldier’s name. He referred to Sgt. Johnson as “your guy.”

Then there was this, in Trump’s Wednesday statement denying Wilson’s account of the conversation.

"I did not say what she said. I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife, who sounded like a lovely woman.”

Then, in a tweet Thursday, there was this:

Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!

Mr. president, some details about 'the guy'

President Trump, “the guy” is Sgt. La David Terrence Johnson, a member of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). He joined in 2014 and went from private to sergeant in three years. He was 25 years old, the father of a 6–year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, and was busting with excitement over the coming arrival of a baby girl.

He met Myeshia, aka “the woman,” when he was 6 years old, married her in 2014 and had her name tattooed across his chest.

Trump spends a fair amount of time criticizing NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem. (I don't particularly like it either but I'd like it even less if somebody tried to take away their First Amendment right to do it.)

It is, Trump has repeatedly said -- as recently as today -- a sign of disrespect.

The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. Total disrespect for our great country!